I applaud Michael Fischetti’s focus on outrageous spending in our school district. I’ve been highlighting this issue for years: before, during and after my term on the school board. The bottom line is that 70 percent of the budget goes toward personnel. Just last yearthe board voted 8-1 (I was the 1) to award the teachers’ union a 10.8 percent raise over three years.

He maintains that the district is spending $30,000 per student, but that number is wrong. He’s taking the entire budget--$62.4 million for the school year now ending--but not dividing that by all of the students. There are about 1,750 students in the district K-12 system, but there are another 1,300children enrolled in the three charter schools and the pre-K program.Charters and pre-schools are not funded at the same level as the district’s K-12 program, which often leads to confusion when discussing per-pupil costs.

The school board is responsible for the K-12 budget for the district schools and that’s what my letters have addressed. We’re spending $23,716 per K-12 student so far this year, according to the district’s own website (Hoboken.k12.nj.us). That’s the second-highest amount among the state’s hundreds of K-12 districts, behind Asbury Park, and $10,000 more than the state average.

Unfortunately for all of us taxpayers, $23,716 isn’t enough for board president Leon Gold and the Kids First majority. They voted 6-3 in March to raise our school taxes another 4 percent because they refuse to figure out how nearly every other district in the state manages to spend significantly less than we do.

And how many years have people been waiting for you to make some real concrete suggestions as to how to cut spending? To date, I have seen none from you and you were on the BOE. So how about you come up with a nice lengthy explanation as to how you would cut spending already b/c I see kids first cutting jobs and getting rid of the dead weight. I see them keeping the levy flat. And I see you complaining all the time but offering nothing in the way of solutions and I am quite honestly tired w/ people who make empty complaints especially when they are in a position to do something more than complain like you once were.